NEW Rocky & Bullwinkle!

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New 'Rocky And Bullwinkle' Is Something We Hope You'll Really Like

"......The latest series, streaming on Amazon on Friday, May 11, is produced by Scott Fellows (a veteran Nickelodeon/Cartoon Network showrunner) and executive-produced by Tiffany Ward — daughter of Jay.

It's been slightly retooled for contemporary audiences........

The original animated series starring the dimwitted Bullwinkle J. Moose and his partner, Rocky the Flying Squirrel, premiered in 1959. Each episode of the show, which went by several names as it switched networks and entered syndication, featured two serialized adventures of our main heroes alongside several recurring segments like "Fractured Fairy Tales," "Aesop and Son" and "Peabody's Improbable History."

They, like all of Jay Ward Productions' output, shared a loopy and slightly sardonic sensibility. The character design was idiosyncratic, the animation passable — but the scripts were what set the show apart, packed as they were with rat-a-tat wordplay and dumb puns; contemporary cultural references and vaudevillian schtick; self-aware meta-commentary and classic, cliffhanger-studded adventure. ......

There are many — many, many — good jokes: rat-a-tat wordplay and dumb puns; contemporary cultural references and vaudevillian schtick; self-aware meta-commentary and classic, cliffhanger-studded adventure.

What's important — what proves crucial, in fact — is that these jokes don't work because they remind you of the original. The show isn't drafting on the nostalgic affection you may feel for these characters. The jokes work, period. They exist within the original show's framework, yes — they depend on certain familiar character dynamics. But they would land as hard on any other show, starring any other characters, in any other setting, because they're just such solid gags....